Lowly Ascent

Back in the Royal Academy in Salazar, Anders had already spent some time at the school. He regularly hung out with Serril and Fiona.

His classes were divided into those that could increase his knowledge and those that trained him to become a proper plague doctor. Unfortunately, as Augustus said, there were barely 2 classes based on combat.

Royal Academy's main focus was on increasing the population of plague doctors, not preparing them to die.

Ever since he attacked that student on the first day of class, Anders only had two friends, Fiona and Serril. The other students already treated him as an outcast.

Anders didn't get in any real trouble for attacking that student. But was heavily reprimanded.

Most of the time, Anders spent his time training with Mr. Nevan. After his incident, he quickly found Nevan and told him who he was. It was a little awkward since Anders already had a reputation for himself but from then on, he would go to Nevan's personal training room to be taught by him.

Nevan was a loyal subject of the royal family and had been brought up by them. He was one of the more respected teachers among the faculty.

He would regularly train Anders in using alchemical spells and how to acquire materials out in the field. He also instilled muscle memory in him, all related to combat.

As they got closer, Anders became comfortable with telling Nevan about his experience with Cain.

He first asked how he couldn't see Cain's split-second movements during one of his close combat training sessions when trying to dodge Nevan's fast-paced attacks.

"Well of course you couldn't see his attacks, you've never trained your eyes nor has your augment affected them. Anders, you are speed-based, but your eyes are not yet able to comprehend such speed.

"If you could, Cain's attack would be like a toddler walking to the speed of a horse from what Lord Augustus told me of the serum you took."

Focusing on this weakness, Anders spent weeks under the professor's training. It consisted of ointments and serums used to treat the eyes and the area around them. These medicinal liquids were created from plants specifically obtained by Nevan to improve blood circulation in the eyes. 

The plants also helped the optic nerve transmit information at a faster pace due to an ancient plant he got from the Royal family.

It was nicknamed the hawk-eye plant and had the bizarre effect of increasing eyesight beyond the norm as well as reaction speed.

After these treatments, Anders would focus on Nevan's hand movements as he quickened the pace after each treatment.

Over time, Anders could focus on a fly and catch it instantly. With a little more time, he could accurately stick a needle straight through it in less than a second.

Fixing this weakness felt like opening a whole new world to Anders. He was grateful to Nevan and his teachings and trained more diligently after seeing himself improve so much.

...

The Academy held classes every day of the week, but the weekends only required one class. Today, Anders was going to one such class with Fiona and Serril.

It was held in one of the gyms. The class taught basic combat and required the students in the program to be at least in the middle grade of augmentation.

Anders liked this class since it let him blow off steam he built up from training. 

The instructor set him to fight a student in the mid-high grade augment. Anders didn't care and instead was happy to go against someone stronger than him.

His opponent wielded a spear and was primarily augmented in the muscles of the upper body.

Muscle augmentation is one of the most common augment serums, but that isn't to be looked down upon. These serums give a massive increase in strength wherever the serum affects the most. In this case, it would be the arms.

The strength in the student's arms could probably crush a whale.... if they actually existed and of the smaller variety.

Of course, such strength couldn't be used recklessly, or the augmenter could damage their organs or skeletal system. This was why serums like these have lots of supporting bacteria.

Anders and his opponent got into positions, and the instructor blew his whistle. The two instantly left their places on the mat and closed in on each other.

Anders's opponent stopped when he neared him and got into a defensive position as Anders continued on.

As soon as his opponent moved his arms to thrust his spear, Anders felt imminent danger and acted accordingly. He preemptively dodged to the side and moved, circling behind his opponent.

Anders pulled out his sword, it radiated light and brightly illuminated part of the room. When the light died down the sword disappeared. No one could see where it went!

Realizing this, his opponent backed away and reconstructed his defensive position. Then,  aiming at Anders, he struck the air, thrusting so hard the air had separated and made visible wind.

The air pushed against Anders's charge. Unfortunately, he had to stop to maintain his connection with the floor.

When the wind stopped, Anders immediately charged forth. His blade once again turned bright. This time it grew so large that the whole room was blinded.

When the audience and his opponent opened their strained eyes, they realized Anders was gone! His opponent spun around, his eyes grew wide when he saw Anders only a few meters away from him.

No longer caring for footwork, he didn't get into a defensive position and began to thrust continuously to create a defensive wall.

Anders laughed as he thrust his sword and watched it glow. A metallic clang rang throughout the room.

His opponent fell to the floor, looking up to see his opponent's sword perfectly piercing through the tip of his spear point and deep into the wooden shaft, destroying his weapon.

"Anders wins." The professor announced as both of them went to take their seats.

"Wow, Anders, you're really good! I didn't think the Garsh family had such a good technique." Fiona was amazed at Anders's swordsmanship and immediately started asking questions when he sat down.

Fiona was quite the curious cat; she asked questions about everything, even simple stuff. She always took trips with Serril to try different food shops throughout the city.

"I didn't learn it from the Garsh family; I learned it from someone else."

"Wow, they must be a really strong and amazing person, huh?"

Anders's face contorted into frustration, "No, he is a murderer and a liar. My only reason for coming here was to get stronger so I could hunt him down and kill him."

Serril frowned, he regularly saw Anders's face contort to such an ugly emotion but he never knew why.

"How bad could he be? Did you have a fight with him or something?"

"He isn't human; he's a monster wearing the mask of one. He is the reason my parents and sister are dead! He then lied about it and took me in as his apprentice! For almost 2 years, I followed him with reverence for saving my life! Almost 2 years, I was fooled by his lies!"

Anders was yelling at this point, everyone in the class was looking at him. Realizing his outburst yet again, he calmed down and put his head down.

"Is that why you have those nightmares all the time?" Serril had always been concerned for his friend, he also noticed many things since he became friends with Anders.

Serril was there for most of Anders's many emotional outbursts.

Anders responded despondently, "Yes."